India: a dystopia for minorities

Shining India has lost its lustre under Modi mania which grips India today. Unfortunately, the Nehruvian secularism has been totally eclipsed by the RSS-driven Hundutva Manusmriti. The Laws of Manu consecrating human indignity have engulfed Indian state as well as public imagination. As a perfect exemplar of the "Theory of Radicalization" of Crenshaw, the Indian society has internalised the religious particularism of Golwalkar and Savarkar, under the infernal fires of Hindutva extremism, lit by the likes of Mihan Bhagwat and Yogi Adityanath.

According to a PEW Research Centre's 2021 study, "Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation", 64% of the Hindu population in India believes that in order to be a true Indian one has to be a Hindu. In the same Pew survey, 80% of the Hindus believe in linguistic apartheid with Hindi as the only language permissible for Indians. Indian secularism is only in name now as the relentless Hindutva propaganda has radicalised an entire population now. The result is the macabre spectacle of charged-up Hindu mob attacking a Christmas celebration in Odissa.

According to a Christian organisation, Open Doors, India leads amongst the countries persecuting the Christians. Against 2% Christians in a population of 1.4 billion Indians that include 80% of Hindus, over 834 attacks against Christians (2 attacks per day) have been experienced as per United Christian Forum.

The statement of Surrendra Gupta, the general Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), that participation in other faiths' festivals might lead to acceptance of those faiths is emblematic of the diseased mentality of right-wing Hindu puritans. The same treatment is meted out to Sikhs, Buddhists and the Muslims. Around 3,000 mosques are under the covetous eyes of rabid Hindu religious nationalists that include such iconic architectural gems like Gyanwapi mosque (Varansi), Shahi Eidgah Mosque (Mathura), Bhojshala Complex (Madhya Pradesh), Sanjauli Mosque (Shimla), Atala Masjid (Jaunpur) and Shahi Jama Masjid (Sambhal). The cathartic anger of centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreign invaders is being directed at hapless Muslims.

While the religious nationalism is on the retreat the world over, in India it is exactly the opposite. A religious cult i.e. RSS has taken hold of the state with BJP acting as its political face. This cult does not brook the existence of minorities as well as the rival political ideologies. So inebriated with religion-induced megalomania have BJP allied politicians become that they do not think light of a reprehensible act of pulling down the veil of a Muslim doctor in public.

In any civilised country that politician would have been forced to resign but not in Modi's India. Modi's India presents a clear and present danger to a world that believes in religious tolerance and plurality of faiths. It is a matter of time before India becomes a hatchery of Hindu terrorism with a global agenda.

From caste-based misanthropy to the global terrorism, it is a small step now for Hindutva votaries who press on with their ominous struggle for establishing a Hindu Rashtra (religious state). The ballast to Hindutva nationalism is provided by the clever historical revisionism by the glib talkers like Shashi Tharoor who have crafted a narrative of Hindu supremacism based upon historical wrongs committed by colonists. The Hindu zealots of RSS have made use of such narratives to proselytise the hate creed of Hindutva amongst Hindus who have no recourse to any independent media as all big news channels have been bought off by right wing, Hindutva-allied business tycoons like Ambanis and Adanis.

The identity erasure of the minorities is being accomplished by laws such as Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025, Uniform Civil Code, Citizen Amendment Act and National Register of Citizen, targeting specific religion-based minorities. According to a National Crime Bureau Report (NCRB) 2023-24, in India 78 cases of mob lynching linked to cow slaughter mostly against Muslims have been reported. HRW has also reported over 50 hate speeches by BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath in 2024, co-relating to a 62% spike in anti-Muslim violence as per Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), 2023-2025. The low conviction rate of 12%, according to a report by Bihar police, in 84 cow vigilantism cases since 2017 clearly indicates the state complicity with criminals.

In the 18th Session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, held on 27-28 November 2025 in Geneva, India's official narrative on constitutional protection of minorities stood discredited in the face of scathing criticism of documented testimonies, data and allegations placed on UN record by civil society organisations. While India tried to obfuscate the truth, six international NGOs dismantled its narrative describing it as a state where minority repression was systemic, institutionalised and protected by the state. The same bodies have downgraded India's National Human Rights Institution, besides describing Indian judiciary as "unable to impartially uphold the rule of law." In the same session, Ms Manisha Devi, representing All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, stated that 97 million Dalit women had faced discrimination on the basis of caste and gender in 62,000 recorded incidents.

The latest Hindutva caper is the 'Viksit Bharat G RAM Bill' which quietly dismantles the rights-based ethos of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act of 2005, replacing it with a dictatorial Hindu majoritarian governance model pandering to the ideological project of RSS and BJP's religious nationalism. It is another attempt to blackmail people in the name of welfare unless they toed the Hindutva line. Despite employing every political and administrative trick, the Indian government has failed to homogenise the eclectic mix of ethnicities and plurality of faiths in India. The Hindu extremism is threatening the secular centre of gravity of Indian Union that had kept a disparate farrago of ethnicities and faiths together.

When religious particularism starts destroying the democratic as well as the social inclusivism of a society, the result is chaos and conflict. India has become a veritable dystopia, not only for minorities but also for a vast multitude of marginalised Hindus.